If you’ve watched professional golf in recent years, you’ve probably noticed players doing something peculiar on the green – standing with feet spread apart, holding up fingers and appearing to measure something invisible. This technique is called AimPoint, and it’s sparked heated debate among golf fans and professionals alike.
What is AimPoint?
AimPoint is a modern green-reading technique based primarily on feeling the slopes on the greens, rather than trying to spot them with your eyes.
For more than 500 years, golfers traditionally read greens by crouching behind the ball and visually surveying the putting surface for slopes. Then putting coach and data analyst Mark Sweeney came along, and developed AimPoint – a system first used by on-course analysts for the TV broadcast, but one that proved so accurate that players themselves began adopting it.
How AimPoint works
A common way to measure the severity of slopes is to use percentages: 0 percent is flat, and any hole cut on more than 4 percent slope is usually considered an illegal pin position. The challenge is that subtle slopes are extremely difficult to see with your eyes, especially when looking slightly down, against a backdrop of green grass.
For example, the difference between 0 percent and 1 percent slope is nearly imperceptible visually, but our bodies can feel this difference immediately. When pros stand with their feet apart on the putting line, they’re measuring the slope through their feet rather than their eyes.
Once they determine the slope percentage, they use their fingers to establish an aim point. For a 1 percent slope, they hold up one finger, aligning one side with the hole and aiming at the point indicated by the other side. For a 2 percent slope, they use two fingers, and so on.
Photo: Keyur Khamar
Why pros trust it
What makes AimPoint so valuable is that green reading isn’t just art – it’s physics. With just four pieces of information, a golfer can predict a putt’s break with remarkable precision. All they need to know is:
The object (a golf ball)
Green speed (measured on the Stimpmeter)
Distance and speed of the putt
Slope percentage
For example, on greens rolling at 12 on the Stimpmeter, a 10-foot putt on a 1 percent slope will break about seven inches. That same putt on a 1.5 percent slope will break 10 inches – almost a full cup more. Accurately gauging slope is crucial because getting it right means knowing exactly how the putt will behave within millimetres.
This is why the PGA Tour has banned certain tools that directly measure slope degrees, like levels and detailed green-reading books. However, feeling slope with your feet is legal as it requires judgement calls for the player, so AimPoint remains.
Many tour professionals use a hybrid approach to AimPoint. Some use their feet to measure the slope, for instance, but not their fingers to decide exactly where to aim. The overall system helps them assess slope more accurately, which is why a significant number of pros have adopted it.
Keegan Bradley is one compelling success story. From 2018 to 2021, Bradley was among the worst putters on the PGA Tour. After adopting Aimpoint in 2022, then hiring renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon, he transformed into a top-20 player in Strokes Gained Putting within just one year.
The controversy
Despite its effectiveness, AimPoint has its critics. PGA Tour player and 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover and other golf fans believe AimPoint significantly contributes to slow play in professional golf.
Defenders of the technique argue that AimPoint was designed to be used quickly. They maintain that a player can use AimPoint rapidly or read putts slowly with conventional methods – the pace depends more on the individual golfer than the technique itself.
What amateurs can learn
For everyday golfers, the value of AimPoint lies in detecting slopes that might not be visible from behind the ball. By sensing even tiny slopes near the hole, you can select a better target, and hopefully hole more putts.
Regardless of where you stand on the debate, it’s worth experimenting with the technique. Next time you face a mid-range putt, try straddling the line to feel which way the ground slopes. Trust your instincts and use all your senses.
